Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(95)

"Do not ask me to leave, too," Gii said quietly. "You look as if you might faint at any moment. I want to stay with you. If you fall, I'll be there to catch you."

"As will I," Asterius said, joining them.

"The Dream Stealers?" Mikki asked.

He shook his head. "There is no sign of them. Not within the realm, and not as far as I can see or sense in the forest." He looked around at the roses. "But it seems they need not be present to destroy."

Mikki drew a deep breath. "Okay, then let's see what I can do to fix it."

The Elemental and the Guardian shadowed her as she moved slowly from bed to bed, examining rose after rose, but soon she forgot they were anywhere near her. The roses consumed her. She'd never seen devastation so horrible. They looked like they had been afflicted with a mixture of Botrytis Blight and Brown Canker and then burned from the inside out. The leaves were shriveled and covered in a dirty-looking fungus, but it felt like no fungus she'd ever encountered. It was sticky, and it smelled like rotting flesh. The canes of the bushes were blackened, with swollen places that looked like an old arthritic woman's knuckles. The buds were shriveled and a deep, bruised purple color.

Mikki straightened from inspecting another dead bush and gazed out into the gardens. Like a poisonous wave, she could see that the sickness was spreading, and she felt a bone-deep chill of fear. This blight wasn't natural. It had been brought to the realm by the evil of the Dream Stealers. Intuition told her that the disease had been in the oily cloud of evil each creature had dissolved into. They hadn't really been dead. She didn't imagine that creatures like that could ever really be killed. Hatred, envy, fear, and selfishness were emotions that would always slither around the fringes of mankind, waiting for their chance to strike and destroy dreams.

It was true they had been banished from the realm, but not soon enough. And Mikki had no idea how to battle something that had infected her roses through creatures of nightmares.

"Empousa," Gii asked timidly. "What would you have us do to save them?"

Mikki looked from the Earth Elemental to her lover. Both were watching her with expressions that were concerned, but she could also see the hope in their eyes and the confidence they had in her.

"I - I have to think! Just stay here and leave me alone for a second." Abruptly, Mikki walked away from them. She left the dying beds and went down the wide marble path that led to the rose gate, thinking she'd sit under the ancient oak and try to come up with a plan - any plan.

A splash of color caught at the corner of her vision, and she stopped and stared. Pink blossoms, in full and healthy bloom, filled two plants that sat in the middle of an otherwise blighted and dying bed. She hurried to the bushes, breathing their sweet scent and caressing the vibrant green of their leaves as if they were prodigal children newly returned. Salet Roses - she recognized them easily. They were one of her favorite Old Garden varieties, with their double blooms and abundant midseason and fall repeat blossoming. But why had these two bushes been spared from the killing blight?

She looked around, searching for spots of brightness within the ocean of rot and disease. She found a splash of red in the bed closest to the rose gate. Quickly, she made her way there. Three bushes there, all at the edge of the bed, were in full bloom. Their color and the deep, true rose fragrance of the blooms identified them as Chrysler Imperials.

What did the two types of roses have in common? Chrysler Imperial was a Hybrid Tea Rose; Salet was of the Old Garden variety. One was red; the other pink. And they weren't even near each other. Mikki stared at the healthy pink where it sat, blooming contentedly, seemingly unfazed by the death around it. Mikki shivered. Hadn't the Salet bed been the one the Dreams Stealers had forced her down in the middle of? They'd meant to rape her there. Thankfully, Asterius had arrived in time and -

Mikki's breath caught. She knew why these roses lived, thrived even in the midst of others that had succumbed to death and disease; she knew what all five bushes had in common. Her blood had touched each of them.

Mikki walked unsteadily to a nearby bench, making it just in time for her to sit as her knees gave way.

She had been in the Salet bed when she had taken the blow on her shoulder. Absently, she touched her shoulder, remembering how freely it had bled. Then near the gate - that was where Hatred had sliced through the vein at her throat. She vaguely remembered lying there, half in the bed, half on the marble path, as blood pumped from her body.

Her blood had saved the roses, had protected them from the Dream Stealer's poison. She put her face in her hands and tried to understand the enormity of her discovery. Over and over the words my blood saved them played in her head.

"Mikado, the women await your command."

She looked up, blinking her vision clear. Asterius knelt beside the bench and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Trust yourself, my love. You will find a way to heal them."

She stared into his dark, expressive eyes and knew what he said was the truth. She knew how to heal the roses, and she did trust herself. Now all she needed to do was to find the courage to act.

"I'm going to Hecate's Temple to speak to the women. Have the Elementals gather them and meet me there."

"Yes, my Empousa," Asterius said. He bowed to her and then took her hand and kissed it gently.

MIKKI stood within the raised temple. The four Elementals had formed a semi-circle behind her. Asterius stood behind them, near the goddess's ever-burning flame. Mikki looked out at the large group of women. They were silent, their faces set with worry and fear, every particle of their attention focused on their Empousa. She lifted her chin and drew a deep breath, projecting her voice into the crowd.